Mark Zuckerberg Will Take Two Months Off from Facebook for Paternity Leave • Hacker News Board

Re: Mark Zuckerberg Will Take Two Months Off from Facebook for Paternity Leave

#11

Post by joosters » Sat, Nov 21, 2015, 12:38 AM UTC

acangiano wrote: post #7

This is great. It sends the message that no matter who you are, prioritizing family over business is an option, especially when a newborn has arrived. I'm also willing to bet that it's good for business. An employee with better relationships at home is more likely to be productive at work in the long term.

But he's not, after all he could have taken four months but chose not to.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg Will Take Two Months Off from Facebook for Paternity Leave

#12

Post by mentos » Sat, Nov 21, 2015, 12:39 AM UTC

scurvy wrote: post #8

Ugh. I'm not trying to be super negative, but he's setting a bad precedent by taking half the amount of allowed leave. "We offer 4 months, but Zuck only took 2. Wanna be like Zuck?" He should take the full 4 months and show everyone that it's OK. This is like the unspoken mantra of "unlimited vacation" really being only 2 - 2.5 weeks.

Isn't 2 a good balance between all and none?

Re: Mark Zuckerberg Will Take Two Months Off from Facebook for Paternity Leave

#13

Post by engi_nerd » Sat, Nov 21, 2015, 12:39 AM UTC

I am jealous. My mega-large, hyphenated corporation only gives 40 hours. Which I have just had approved (today!) so that I could help care for my newborn son while my wife recovers from caesarian section. Doing this required multiple calls to a third party company that hypenated-corporation has subcontracted their leave and disability claims to, as well as about 30 pages worth of paperwork. I spent about half as much time coordinating all this as the amount of leave that I'll get.

My point is: even if Zuckerberg only takes half the time he gives to everyone else he's still being very generous to himself as compared to what happens in much of corporate America. I am willing to bet that going on leave like this is probably easier at Facebook, as well.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg Will Take Two Months Off from Facebook for Paternity Leave

#14

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Nov 21, 2015, 12:39 AM UTC

scurvy wrote: post #8

Ugh. I'm not trying to be super negative, but he's setting a bad precedent by taking half the amount of allowed leave. "We offer 4 months, but Zuck only took 2. Wanna be like Zuck?" He should take the full 4 months and show everyone that it's OK. This is like the unspoken mantra of "unlimited vacation" really being only 2 - 2.5 weeks.

[deleted]

Re: Mark Zuckerberg Will Take Two Months Off from Facebook for Paternity Leave

#15

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Nov 21, 2015, 12:41 AM UTC

scurvy wrote: post #8

Ugh. I'm not trying to be super negative, but he's setting a bad precedent by taking half the amount of allowed leave. "We offer 4 months, but Zuck only took 2. Wanna be like Zuck?" He should take the full 4 months and show everyone that it's OK. This is like the unspoken mantra of "unlimited vacation" really being only 2 - 2.5 weeks.

[deleted]

Re: Mark Zuckerberg Will Take Two Months Off from Facebook for Paternity Leave

#16

Post by Gigablah » Sat, Nov 21, 2015, 12:42 AM UTC

[deleted] wrote: post #14

scurvy wrote: post #8

Ugh. I'm not trying to be super negative, but he's setting a bad precedent by taking half the amount of allowed leave. "We offer 4 months, but Zuck only took 2. Wanna be like Zuck?" He should take the full 4 months and show everyone that it's OK. This is like the unspoken mantra of "unlimited vacation" really being only 2 - 2.5 weeks.

[deleted]

A humblebrag competition? Really now?

Re: Mark Zuckerberg Will Take Two Months Off from Facebook for Paternity Leave

#17

Post by jsprogrammer » Sat, Nov 21, 2015, 12:43 AM UTC

joosters wrote: post #11

acangiano wrote: post #7

This is great. It sends the message that no matter who you are, prioritizing family over business is an option, especially when a newborn has arrived. I'm also willing to bet that it's good for business. An employee with better relationships at home is more likely to be productive at work in the long term.

But he's not, after all he could have taken four months but chose not to.

Did he already return to work?

Re: Mark Zuckerberg Will Take Two Months Off from Facebook for Paternity Leave

#18

Post by evincarofautumn » Sat, Nov 21, 2015, 12:44 AM UTC

scurvy wrote: post #8

Ugh. I'm not trying to be super negative, but he's setting a bad precedent by taking half the amount of allowed leave. "We offer 4 months, but Zuck only took 2. Wanna be like Zuck?" He should take the full 4 months and show everyone that it's OK. This is like the unspoken mantra of "unlimited vacation" really being only 2 - 2.5 weeks.

As I understand it, the maternity/paternity leave at Facebook can be taken at any time. He could return to work after the initial 2 months, and later take more time off, up to a total of 4 months.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg Will Take Two Months Off from Facebook for Paternity Leave

#19

Post by nostrademons » Sat, Nov 21, 2015, 12:44 AM UTC

scurvy wrote: post #8

Ugh. I'm not trying to be super negative, but he's setting a bad precedent by taking half the amount of allowed leave. "We offer 4 months, but Zuck only took 2. Wanna be like Zuck?" He should take the full 4 months and show everyone that it's OK. This is like the unspoken mantra of "unlimited vacation" really being only 2 - 2.5 weeks.

At Google it was pretty common for new fathers to take half of the allotted leave at the baby's birth and then save up the remaining half to use for emergencies, vacations, or milestones over the next year. (You could bank paternity leave for up to 1 year at the time; it may be more now, since IIUC Google increased paternity leave from 6 weeks to 6 months around when I left.) So for example, if your wife needed to go to a conference or had a heavy workload at her job, you could take leave to cover the baby. Or if you wanted to take the kid to visit grandparents/great-grandparents, you could use up paternity leave instead of vacation time.

Zuck may be doing something similar.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg Will Take Two Months Off from Facebook for Paternity Leave

#20

Post by ksenzee » Sat, Nov 21, 2015, 12:44 AM UTC

It's great that he's taking two months, but count me with those who think he should take more. I took three months of maternity leave with my youngest, and honestly that last month was a really good deal for my employer. I used to say they were paying me to stay out of the codebase. I felt fine, and if I'd had to go back to work I could have, but between the sleep deprivation and the distractions of having a newborn around, I was pretty cognitively impaired. They'd probably still be finding bugs in the code I wrote that month.